The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the Nigeria Stock Exchange, NSE, on Wednesday resolved to work together to build a stronger capital market in the country. Both the Acting Director General of SEC Nigeria, MounirGwarzo, and NSE Chairman, AigbojeAigImokhuede, noted the importance of such collaboration with key players to take the market to greater heights.
The two officials were exchanging views in Abuja where Mr. Aig- Imokhuede visited the capital market regulator. Mr. Gwarzo said the current management of the Commission was willing and open to discussions on issues that will move the market forward in the interest of Nigerians and Economic Development

“We realize that the Exchange is very important in our quest to move the market to a new level,”
Mr. Gwarzo said. “SEC Nigeria, as the regulatory authority in the capital market, is keen on exploring areas of collaboration with stakeholders.”

Mr. Gwarzo said SEC Nigeria was keen to ensure that the wealth of experience of some of the operators, who have been in the market for a long time, would benefit the market.

With such collaboration, he said SEC Nigeria was set to launch a new Complaints Management System that would allow issues affecting the smooth operations of the market to be resolved from the bottom.

According to the SEC Nigeria DG, the management under his leadership was working to empower ‘Self-Regulatory Organizations, SROs and trade organizations to enable them handle some complaints and deal with them with dispatch. “The strategy of the SEC management is not to create committees, but to focus on prescriptions and ensure that they are executed within reasonable time frames,” he said.

To realise this objective, he said the Commission has finalised the rules on complaints management framework, which would soon be released.
One of the highlights of the proposed regulation, Mr. Gwarzo said, is to allow complaints to be managed at the lower level of the market.
On the issue of recapitalization, Mr. Gwarzo said he was delight that the Commission has had a good collaboration with all stakeholders, pointing out that the Commission would return to the exercise in the next five months.

The Chairman of Council of the NSE, Mr. Aig, Imokhuede said markets in other jurisdictions have benefitted significantly from collaborations between the regulators and the regulated entities.

He expressed optimism that the market in Nigeria would also benefit from such close partnership.
“We feel that the market here will benefit from this type of partnership and we will be keen on that,” he said.
“We would like to see this visit as the beginning of strong collaboration between NSE and SEC. This does not in any way cross the line between the regulators and the regulated, and we will respect our regulator in every way.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the NSE, Oscar Onyema, said the visit was an opportunity to rekindle relations and make it stronger, adding that that was why the management of the NSE decided to visit the Commission.

“We believe that in so doing the NSE and SEC would be able to build the capital market that Nigerians desire,” Mr. Onyema said.